CZ Design & Print writes:
When my inbox is busy and I see an email greetings card from one of my business suppliers, I am not filled with Christmas cheer. The card is invariably accompanied by a message saying that the money that they would have spent on cards will be donated to charity. Excellent - but will it happen. I’m afraid that my cynical nature kicks in and I just wonder if the whole exercise has been a cost cutting venture!
So it’s a busy day, my inbox is bursting and someone sends me a cheesy animation of a snow laden Christmas scene and expects me to spend three minutes watching it. Sorry - I hit the delete button sooner than I perhaps should!
The alternative, of course, is the printed card which is opened by someone in the office and put on my desk for me to read. I look to see who it is from and whether they have signed it. It then gets put up on the wall to decorate the office. When we open up the office again in the New Year I take them all down, remembering who sent them. As a form of ingratiating advertising they fulfil their function well getting many bangs for their buck.
I’m pleased to say that I’m not the only one to think this way. Some Open University research this year tends to agree with me:
Gooch, Daniel and Kelly, Ryan (2016). Season’s Greetings: An Analysis of Christmas Card Use.
Evidence of personalization also seemed to increase the perceived worth of each card, with people also ascribing more value to paper cards than electronic ones due to tradition, the effort involved, and some sense of authenticity: “Paper card seems to show my concern and effort more than electronic one”. On the other hand, electronic cards were perceived less favourably, and sometimes as wholly inappropriate: “They don’t count as proper Christmas cards”
Our respondents also enjoyed receiving paper cards because they arrive through the physical mail system. The most common explanation here was that paper cards break from the mundane qualities of modern post: “It’s always exciting to receive something interesting to read in the post that isn’t junk mail”
So, in summary, keep on sending those cards, people love receiving them!
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